Letter 26

Hello, Tim!

I'm really shocked when you said that you had to get ready for 110 degrees Fahrenheit! Though Southeast Asian countries can easy go up to 40+ degrees Celsius (I'm used to Celsius, so in text below I'll use both), I still can't imagine a summer of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. I think it's already extremely hot when it's 37-39℃ (99-102℉) in Taipei, but it feels hotter because I'm in the urban and Taipei is very humid all the year.

Take Taipei City for example, the daily average high temperature is 32℃ (90℉) in June, 34.3℃ (93.7℉) in July, 33.8℃ (92.8℉) in August and 31.1℃ (88℉) in September, but the humidity is 77.3%, 73%, 74.1% and 75%. Though the highest extreme temperature is only around 38 and 40℃ at Taipei, I still prefer the climate in Phoenix if I had to choose. Because the humidity is only 20% in June, and around 30-35 in July, August and September. I really can't put up with wet and hot weathers in Taiwan. In comparison, Kaohsiung is even drier than Taipei. I think that typhoon season don't make things better because humidity turns from 85% to almost 100%. During typhoon season, we still turn our air conditioner on and relax indoors, though the scene may be very interesting because everything is flying outside.

One thing I'm curious about Frank's house is that are there only two residents in this house? If so, would it be boring or troublesome because the house is too big? My aunt's house in San Diego is not that big, but there can be up to 5 people (my aunt, my uncle, my two cousins and my grandma) living. I heard that my aunt moved to a condo in Irvine, and the reasons are my cousins live outside by themselves (one of them is getting married this summer) and my grandma doesn't go to California that often. Besides, it's more close to Los Angeles.

Since there's more time, I think I can share some photos of my trips to Europe and Japan with you.

Another thing I'm also very curious about is why the ordinary residences in European cities can be so beautiful. Every one of them looks like a museum. I'm also curious about whether they are historical houses. The pictures below are taken near Rathaus of Vienna at 24/05/2016.

The next architecture I like very much is the Secession Building Vienna (Wiener Secessionsgebäude in German). I especially like the roof of it because it's a sphere of golden foliage, and the text below "Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit." means "To every age its art, to every art its freedom" in English (according to Wikipedia).

I also like their colorful markets in Europe much. This is Naschmarkt. Meat, vegetable, spices, deli, tea and some snacks are sold there. Naschmarkt is near to Karlsplatz, and the photos are taken at the same date as the ones above.

Another weirdest thing I found is in Hungary. When I was in junior high school, my friend once told me that people in Hungary eat fried pork fat. And I thought, I must taste it someday when I was in Hungary! It must be very wonderful! And unexpectedly, I really went Hungary. When I tasted it for the first time when I was in the hotel eating breakfast, it wasn't the thing that I expected. And then I realized that Hungarians eat the Töpörtyű (you can check out how to read it in Hungarian here) with bread when they're eating breakfast or as a starter, and it isn't something that has strong taste. Besides the texture is really interesting. That's all I can describe it. This is a website about it. The photo below is taken at Central Market Hall of Budapest (Nagy Vásárcsarnok in Hungarian), it sells many kinds of meat and farm produce (including the famous paprika) on the first floor, and some clothes, souvenirs and small restaurants on the second floor.

These are some local food. Actually the traditional food in Hungary (or Magyar cuisines) is very delicious and different from our country, so I like it. All kinds of food are in color red so they have to put a sign reminds customer that all food is not spicy.

I found people in Eastern Europe very like dumplings. I had eaten dumplings when I was in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. After a difficult search of a various of Magyar dishes in Hungarian language, I only found the correct name of the dish in far middle, it's called Töltött káposzta, basically it is cabbage roll with ground pork and beef inside with paprika and sour cream sauce. And the dish on the left is egg barley with beef stew. As for the dish on the right, I don't really remember what is was consisted of. I remember that there are some rice, chicken and cheese.

The Europe's largest and second largest synanogue in the world is at Budapest, it's called Dohány Street Synagogue (Dohány utcai zsinagóga). I'm very unfamiliar with Jewish religious architecture because there isn't a big one in Taiwan and I don't understand religions well. But in a perspective of appreciating architectures, this synanogue is very beautiful because there are bright colors and sophisticated decorations on the walls and the windows. Here are some photos.

The next thing I want to talk about is Budapest's Metro M1. Why it's worth talking about? Because it's the second oldest underground railway line in the world (the oldest is Metropolitan line of London Underground). This line is 4.4 km long, with 1,435 mm gauge and was built in during 1894-1896. It's also the only underground line that is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because M1 is very old, the technology in late 19th century was not that good, so the railway was not deep from the ground. If you walk on the road along M1, you will feel ground shaking when a train is passing by! The M1 is not alike to other modern lines, it's more like an underground tram. Because the distance between stations are very short (11 stations in 4.4 km), and the station is very small. But I like this line because the style is retro, it looks like a unique system from other metro lines. I'll just show you some photos of stations and trains. I'll make comparison with other metro lines.

This is a entrance of Bajcsy–Zsilinszky út Station, M1. (út means street)

 And this is an entrance of Rákóczi tér Station, M4. (tér means square)

This is the station sign of Bajcsy–Zsilinszky út Station, M1. (Földalatti means underground, noun)

This is the station sign of Astoria Station (a regular station of Budapest metro as well), M2.

This is the platform of Opera Station, M1, the ceiling is very low because the railway is shallow. I'll talk about the train later.

 This is the platform of Fővám tér Station, M4. M4 is newly built.

The train of M1 looks very funny. It's relatively broad inside, but it's low, short and cubic on the whole. There are only three cars in a train set, so it can't contain many people. Here are some photos and you can watch my video of it posted on Youtube here.

Below are the exteriors and interiors of trains used in M3 and M4.

The train of M3 is called Metrovagonmash 81-717/714. This kind of train is built by Soviet Union since 1977 and can still be seen in many previous Soviet cities such as Moscow, Prague, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Warsaw, Budapest, Yerevan and Tibilsi.

M4 is newly opened in 2014 so the train is also modern and new.

 There are the beautiful coat of arms of Budapest above the doors. You can read more information here.

Because it's Thursday now, I'll talk about the last thing I found interesting: The tram in Budapest. The tram network is very important to the residents of Budapest, its users are even more than the ones of metro. There are 26 main lines and 7 sub lines in total and has 612 train stocks. Line 2 is an important but also very beautiful tram line in Budapest. The train runs on the bank of Danube, and the length is 6 km. It takes 20 minutes to finish the whole ride. Luckily, we stayed near the Danube and metro is less convenient so we take Tram line 2 every day. Below are some picturesque photos of line 2.

The first 5 were taken at Vigadó tér Station.

 These three were taken on the balcony of my hotel room.

 Remember? This is Boráros tér, where I stayed at Budapest. I mentioned this square in one of the responses long, long time ago. The tram on the left is line 2.

 These three below are taken at Széchenyi István tér Station, the famous Széchenyi Lánchíd (Széchenyi Chain Bridge) is nearby. I will talk about it next week.

 These two are taken near Eötvös tér station. The architecture far away is the Buda Castle.

 This is the interior and the sign of the train. For some special reason, I brought one of those signs (not line 2) back to Taiwan, as for the reason why, I'll also talk about it next week.

That's all for this week, and I promise I will continue sharing fun things I saw in Budapest and even more other cities. Thank you for your frequent comments, and I hope you can look forward to next week's articles and comment again. Please let me know about more of your thoughts!

Sincerely,

Melvyn Chou, 18/05/2017.